A prophet once ran for president?!

Here’s something crazy to imagine: What if our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, was also the president of a country? It would be like when Alma the prophet was also chief judge!

Something like that could have happened years ago, when Joseph Smith ran for president of the United Sates. Here’s what happened:

• The governor of Missouri signed an order commanding the militia to chase 10,000 Saints out of the state.
• Members of the Church asked for protection from local law enforcement and judges, the governor, and senators. No one listened.
• Joseph went to the U.S. Capitol and met directly with the President and members of Congress, who declined to help again. They claimed the Constitution didn’t allow the federal government to protect religious freedom when individual states refused to do so.
• By 1844, Joseph felt that running for president would raise awareness and help expand religious freedom, so he announced his candidacy in February.
• Unfortunately, Joseph was killed just a few months later—making him the first presidential candidate in American history to be assassinated!

Joseph had printed pamphlets describing his vision for the country. He wanted everyone to have freedom to worship the way they wanted, not just the Saints.

“If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a Mormon, I am bold to declare before heaven that I am just as ready to die for a presbyterian, a Baptist, or any other denomination,” he stated. “It is a love of liberty which inspires my soul.”¹

Nowadays, the U.S. Constitution has been amended so the government has more power to more readily protect groups who were discriminated against—similar to laws promising freedom of religion in Alma’s time.²

And prophets and apostles today continue to stand for religious freedom for all God’s children around the world.

For example, while speaking in Italy a few years ago, President Dallin H. Oaks taught, “Freedom of religion and belief is an essential condition for a free society. It is the oldest of our internationally recognized fundamental rights… it was the first to receive formal protection [internationally]. As such, it can be seen as the grandparent of all the other rights.”³

^{How can you promote religious freedom where you live?}

Notes
Learn more about Joseph Smith’s quest to protect religious freedom in this article by historian Spencer W. McBride.

1. Quoted in Religious Freedom, ChurchOfJesusChrist.Org, Topics.
2. See Alma 30:7-11.
3. From “Religious Freedom in an International Context,” summarized in this Church News article.